Most of the legislative changes envisaged by the new stage of the reform will be prepared in the coming months in order to enable the Verkhovna Rada to start working on them in autumn.

This was stated by Vyacheslav Nehoda, First Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services.

"Now our joint task before the next local elections in 2020 is to prepare and send to the Parliament a draft law on changes to the Constitution in the part of decentralisation, to form a network of capable communities by 100%, differentiate powers between state bodies and local self-government bodies on the principle of subsidiarity, and change the system of local elections. This is a very real task and we have already started doing it,” noted Vyacheslav Nehoda.

According to him, MinRegion and experts have already begun preparing amendments to the electoral legislation to ensure proportional representation of citizens in councils of hromadas and territorial communities in rayon and oblast councils. Governmental and non-governmental experts are also working on amendments to the laws “On Local Self-Government in Ukraine” and “On Local State Administrations”, as well as other legislation defining the powers of local self-government bodies and local authorities.

“Today we also heard the Prime Minister’s initiative to give more powers and resources to all cities of rayon importance, defined by perspective plans as potential centres of amalgamated hromadas,” the First Deputy Minister noted.

According to him, all these developments should be completed by autumn to be considered in the Parliament already in autumn. “Only this way we will have time to do everything the reform requires at this stage. And it is very important for us to have support all decentralisation adherers: specialised associations, international partners, experts. At the same time, our discussion should concern strategic issues, for if we have a common vision on future changes, we will have quick decisions, and therefore the reform will move on,” said Vyacheslav Nehoda.